Social protection a long term enterprise
Sustainable and long term initiatives can play an important role in ensuring social protection to the people, especially the poor and those who live in a vulnerable situation, speakers told a discussion yesterday.
They also said the existing initiatives, like social safety net programme, have to be implemented in an innovative way while women, children and the people with disabilities should be prioritised.
The remarks came at a panel discussion, “Scope of adaptive social protection in Bangladesh: A policy, institutional and expenditure review”, jointly organised by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Unnayan Shamannay at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) office in the capital, where representatives of different local and international organisations were present.
Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, said, “The vulnerable people want a permanent solution to their problems rather than relief or aid as through aid they can only minimise their sufferings.”
So a long term initiatives, like providing them with employment facilities, and building sustainable structure for the protection of the people living in disaster-prone areas, have to be taken, she said.
More than 48 million people, approximately 28 percent of the country's households, are climate vulnerable where women, children and the disabled becomes mostly affected, Dr Mahfuz Kabir, senior research fellow of BIISS, said at his keynote presentation.
He recommended including the climate change issue along with the social protection programmes. Dr Saleemul Haq, senior fellow of the International Institute for Environment and Development, said, “We also need to focus on the youths' employment and skill development...”
Khurshid Alam, assistant country director of UNDP, said, “We need to collect more information about the vulnerable people to get the entire scenario of vulnerability in the country so that the initiatives can be taken more effectively.”
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